St. Louis scores 4 but Bolts fall to Sharks

Tampa, FL (SportsNetwork.com) - Martin St. Louis registered his first career
four-goal game, but no other Tampa Bay Lightning player scored in Saturday's
5-4 home loss to the San Jose Sharks.

San Jose's Joe Pavelski had the final three goals, all coming in the second
period. He scored 21 seconds apart before he was credited with a deflection
with one minute remaining, giving him the first hat trick of his career.

"It was a sloppy game. A lot of turnovers that created a lot of skating up and
down for no reason. It got better in the third, but after talking about it for
two periods I hope it would have been better," said Sharks coach Todd
McLellan.

St. Louis tied a Lightning record for most goals in a game set by Chris Kontos
in the franchise's first-ever regular season game on Oct. 7, 1992 against
visiting Chicago.

"I did appreciate it until we were down and the game was over. It is tough to
really be happy about it. I'm glad I put myself in this position, but at the
end of the day we lost the game," St. Louis said.

Patrick Marleau posted a goal and two assists for San Jose, which swept a
three-game road trip against Eastern Conference opponents. Antti Niemi made 25
saves, including six in the third period to preserve the Sharks' one-goal
lead.

Ben Bishop, Niemi's Tampa Bay counterpart, was beaten five times on 32 shots.

The Lightning have suffered one-goal losses in each of their last five games
at Tampa Bay Times Forum and squandered a 4-2 lead in the latest setback.

Three consecutive tallies by St. Louis put Tampa Bay up 4-2. He matched Kontos
with his second power-play goal 2:07 into the second. Positioned at the right
faceoff dot, St. Louis one-timed home a crossing pass by Teddy Purcell.

Pavelski then stole the show.

On a delayed penalty, Tyler Kennedy fed Pavelski for a one-timer at 12:48.
Tampa Bay's Eric Brewer went off for hooking 13 seconds later and Pavelski
struck again eight seconds into the power play, sweeping in a rebound from his
knees.

The Sharks grabbed the lead when Pavelski got his stick on Matt Irwin's wrist
shot from the left point.

St. Louis' first goal, on a power play, erased a 1-0 deficit, built on Matt
Nieto's goal 9:46 into the game. San Jose had not surrendered a power-play
goal in its previous six games.

Marleau responded 56 seconds later to put the Sharks back on top at 12:52 of
the first period, but Tampa Bay led 3-2 at the intermission.

Denied by Niemi on a breakaway, St. Louis backhanded in his own rebound at
15:44 and then got the hat trick off a scramble in front of the net with 29.7
seconds remaining in the opening frame.

Game Notes

St. Louis extended his point streak to seven games ... San Jose forward Brent
Burns played in his 600th career NHL game ... Tampa Bay has scored a power-
play goal in four straight games ... The Sharks beat Tampa Bay 5-1 at home on
Nov. 21.